Transformers 5
by Random Anonymous Writer
Summary: This story took place a year after the fourth installment, about how a flight accident happened to fighter jet pilot Johanna Grace turned out to be a game-changer point of her life, making her life more thrilling when she meets the Autobots.
1. Ch 1- I Had A Real 'Exciting' Journey

"This is gross."

Edward Houck complained about the food. I patted his back and said, "Don't worry, laddie, you'll soon get used to it. I've been living on this for five years."

He gave me an even sourer look of surprise and scandalize. "What the - " he spat out all contents that was in his mouth. "_Five years?_"

Tyrell Thompson and Danny Roberson sniggered at the other side of our table. I compressed laughter and said in a deadpan face I tried to make, "Yeah, kiddo, five whole years. It'll make six two months later."

He stared at the plate of food miserably. "Five years?" he echoed.

"Trust me, the other dishes get nothing better than this," I said in a sympathetic way.

He gulped hard and looked towards the kitchen.

Danny couldn't restrain himself anymore and bursted out howling with laughter. "For god's sake, man, don't take it so seriously – that's just a stupid little prank!"

Edward stared up. I started guffawing and Tyrell explained through chortle, "She told you in getting the worst dish – the food here in the air force base except this are actually spectacular."

"Okay, I apologize for tricking you, I'll get you another better dish," I patted his shoulder as he glared at me in rage revengefully. I left the table and headed for the kitchen, and got another way better dish.

"There you go – eat up!" I said cheerfully. Suddenly my pocket beeped.

"Oh my god – okay, Tyrell, gear up and we have work to be done."

* * *

><p>"Jo – Jo – wait!"<p>

Tyrell ran and attempted to catch up with me, huffing and puffing all the way behind.

"Wow, jelly legs, train your speed!" I laughed as I turned and stop for him.

"You've – huh – gotta be – kidding me," he stopped in front of me, trying to catch his breath. "I just had dinner! We need time to digest! And even if we're summoned you don't need to be in such a hurry!"

I punched him hard on the shoulder and he yelped. "I'm a year older in experience than you, so don't bargain with me. When I say go and you'll come with me."

"Jeez, that fucking hurt, man," he moaned and complained as he clutched his shoulder hard and massaged it. "You needn't punch me so hard. I know you're strong, dude."

"C'mon, I'd hate to kiss Colonel Williams' ass," I scoffed. "If we don't hurry, wait and see, it'll be a harsh one."

I turned and ran at a slower pace so Tyrell could catch up with me easily. And soon we arrived at command.

"Johanna Grace and Tyrell Thompson reporting, sir," I said as we arrived.

"Ah, yes, Captains," Colonel Williams turned and said. "We've got an unidentified inbound infiltrator entering our airspace, about 20 miles to our north. You'll check the aircraft."

"Yes, sir," I replied and dashed back into open air.

I entered one of the F-22s in base as Tyrell entered the other. I started up the engine and flew it away, and soon enough I saw it – a F-16C.

"Tyrell, you copy?" I called through the communication device as I flew to the right of the jet while Tyrell went left. "Can you tell me if you can see the jet's identity code? I saw nothing. Over."

"Then that's creepy. I saw none too. Over."

"Son of a bitch…" I cursed lowly. "I'll call back to command, you stick to the son of a bitch's ass."

"This is Johanna Grace, reporting to command. Unidentified aircraft confirmed to be a F-16C, and we couldn't find its identity code. Over."

A short while later I received this message: "Captain Grace and Captain Thompson, please escort the unidentified aircraft back to base. Over."

I rolled my eyes and shook my head. "That's awesome work. The most idiotic mission ever!" I said in fake dismay through the two-way radio to Tyrell. I turned my jet and stayed close to its right, and escorted it back to base.

"Yeah," he replied through a half-laugh. "That's totally… WHOA!"

He broke his sentence as the F-16 suddenly paused in midair and we went ahead of it. Then with a loud, long blast I realized that jet was attacking us.

"No, no, it got me!" Tyrell yelled through the radio. I looked over to him while I turn, and the left back flap was hit down, and his plane was slanted to a side. Then the F-16 turned its aim towards me.

I took control over my jet and avoided the series of attack frantically. "Command, you copy?" I cried through the communication device. "Grace and Thompson are under attack! Request air support!"

BANG. My left flap got hit and was half-damaged, and I started to return fire at full strength. To both my surprise and horror, the jet received full attack but no damage was made.

And at the same time my F-22 started to lose height and slanted to the left at a dangerously high speed. "Grace is hit! Please send help!" I yelled through the radio, and within seconds I made a cowardly decision in my point of view – I punched hard onto the emergency escape button.

The glass cover of the plane over my head opened and my seat was shot straight up with great force – along with me screaming.

As soon as I started to fall a parachute ejected from the seat, slowing down my dropping speed. And I braced myself as my falling F-22 exploded below me, engulfed in flames.

My heart raced at top speed. Then another explosion, this time above me sent a brain shock to me. "No, no…" I trembled and flopped around madly.

I descended even faster aside, and finally stopped when the parachute attached to me was hooked onto a tree, and tangled me in the middle of stings.

I decided to stop wriggling around like a madman, and pulled off my helmet. I threw it away and it disappeared in the middle of branches of trees. My braid fell onto my left shoulder as I looked up. Not the slightest sign of any planes, or even a bird.

It was dusk already, as I could see the sun setting at the horizons. I started to worry about my own personal safety.

I struggled hard to reach my hand to my left boot, which was an uneasy task, as both my hands and legs were hung in the strings attached to the parachute and me. After what seemed forever I finally grabbed hold of the knife hidden in my left boot and started sawing and cutting the parachute off me.

As soon as I broke free from the parachute I fell hard onto the ground back first, which send sensation of stabbing pain straight up my spine. I groaned and managed on my foot, and staggered around.

Not even the tiniest idea of where I was dawned on me. It seemed that I was trapped in what seemed like a forest, and I couldn't be sure if there were any immediate threats.

I reached for the GPS in my survival vest, packed with all kinds of applicable tools in my situation, and turned it on. "Screw this," I muttered, as the screen showed that the satellites couldn't detect my location.

I thought of using the map and compass in my whole set of equipments in my suit, but the truth was that I wasn't even sure where I was hit by the F-16. In other words, I was alone and lost in the middle of nowhere.

I forced myself to move around, to investigate what could be found or used. And half an hour later, I did find something – my downed jet.

The beautiful yet deadly designed fighter jet had nothing but a pile of metal waste left. Nothing was left. I was hopeless.

I slumped down onto the ground. I was hopeless of surviving.

Despite the inevitable fact I lighted my spirit up with 'what if…' questions. What if I finally can make it back? What if they're actually searching for me? There were thousands of possibilities in the world.

That's when I thought of Tyrell. Tyrell... where was he? Was he also downed? Could he be... no, he's tough, he's as live as he could be...

A chilly breeze blew my way and I shuddered. Even having layers of suit couldn't keep me warm for long. I ignited a fire with some matches in my pocket, and started it with branches I could collect. Then I popped a flare, hoping someone could see poor little Jo's location.

As soon as I sat down I started to feel dehydrated as I slouched against a tree. Then five seconds later the little while of harmony was destroyed as I see a comet – or rather a fireball flew my way, and landed about a mile to my left with a _KA-BOOM_ and an earthquake.

As soon as the ground stopped shaking I stomped my foot hard and started screaming like a havoc, "GOD! IS THIS NOT ENOUGH FOR ME YET?! I'M LOST AND YOU STILL WANT TO MAKE FUN OF ME? THIS-IS-NOT-FUNNY!"

I panted and I could feel my cheeks heated up with rage and blood pounding angrily in my ears. This was like an insult: it seemed like God was feeling, _oh, this little chick wasn't suffering enough. Now let's give her a bit of 'excitement'._

Despite my anger I couldn't help from feeling a little curious of what fell from the sky. I took a lighted branch as a torch and extinguished the fireplace. Then slowly I paced towards where the fireball landed.

I hid behind a tree as I reached it, and immediately extinguished the fire as it moved.

And with a bit of moonlight I saw it. It moved and I could hear metal clanging, and what appeared to be a super massive robot rose to its feet…

It was a transformer.


	2. Ch 2- I Fired a Gun For An Alien

First thing you should do when you come across an alien robot: _hide and find a way to escape._

That's exactly what Danny taught me. He used to be a member of NEST team, an alien-human joint military group. And since the war of Chicago, everyone seemed to have lost trust in these aliens, both the good Autobots and ruthless killers Decepticons. NEST was dismissed, though I didn't understand why the Autobots had to be exiled too. They've fought wars for us. Things could've turned out even worse without them.

I muted myself, trying to breathe as soundless as I could manage, and stepped back slowly and quietly.

But it seemed like God wasn't feeling done hoaxing me. I lost balance when I took my second step away from the transformer, and stepped hard on a twig, with small but audible _CRACK!_

The alien must have noticed. It turned its gigantic head to me, his blue head shone under moonlight, his silver robot face unable to read and his glittering blue optics staring at exactly where I stood.

At that second time seemed to have frozen. "_ARGHHHH!" _I screamed in pure fear, turned around and ran for my life.

Despite the gigantic size of the alien which should've made it clumsy, it grabbed me, fast as lightning – and transformed. And before I even realized I was sitting on the driver's seat of a vehicle. A... a truck.

I attempted to break free, to open the door with normal ways. Of course it didn't work. "_LET ME GO!"_ I shrieked. Then I elbowed and kicked the glass. It was hard as steel, and I couldn't even make a crack on it. And finally I end up hitting everything I could reach madly. _"LET ME GO! LEAVE ME ALONE!"_

"Easy, human." A voice echoed in the car. My eyes bulged and I paralyzed in fear.

"Who are you?" I asked in a quavering tone after a short pause. "And what do you want from me?"

It remained silent.

"Show yourself!" I demanded. I knew it was a dumb suggestion.

"Are you an Autobot?" I asked again, tentatively, though it was obviously a dumb question. Second lesson from Danny: _Decepticons will always go for the kill straightaway. _

Suddenly the truck's engine roared. And off it went at high speed, and soon we were out of the woods.

An idea struck me. What if the GPS could finally work when I was out of the place?

I got the device out and turned it on again. For a second I could see my location shown on the device. My heart almost gave a great thump of joy when the radar's jammed once again. And I realized… this transformer I was in did this.

"Dang it," I muttered in frustration, and threw the useless thing on the floorboard hard.

My head raced as fast as lightning could strike. _Think, think, how do you escape?_

Before I could come up with a strategy I could see a black car coming our way from our left. I gasped in great gladness. I reached for the bottle of matches in my suit and lighted up three of them and waved over my head, screaming, "Hey! I'm here!" and hoped I could catch their attention.

The truck turned without warning, and by then we turned our backs on the incoming cars as if escaping. "Hey – hey, no!" I said to the truck and looked back. It didn't respond. Then my matches went out. "Shit," I muttered and jabbed them hard on the seats out of frustration. Of course it didn't relight again.

I gazed up again and this time, two other black cars came straight our way. Then two other from our right. Four from left. And soon the truck and I were surrounded by nine black identical cars.

The truck was still going at top speed. It was my last chance. I kicked the door desperately, and to my astonishment, it flung open and I fell out, and rolled onto the hard ground. The truck transformed back to a twenty-or so feet tall robot, and was surrounded by the black cars. I could see heavy weapons were geared up on top of the cars at the transformer.

"Easy, humans," the transformer growled, as he took a super massive gun from his back. The squad didn't fall back or geared down.

I stumbled onto my feet as three guys from one of the black cars leapt down and came to me, _armed with heavy weapons._ I waved up my hands and gestured surrender and said, "Hey, easy, guys, I'm a friendly!"

"Freeze! Hold your ground!" a man with black hair with oddly icy blue eyes standing right in front of me shouted, his gun still pointing at my chest.

"I'm Johanna Grace, a pilot from Cannon Air Force Base! I'm friendly" I cried desperately.

"Canon Air Force Base? It was destroyed three hours ago. We have no information of survivors."

"What?" I said, shocked by the news. Destroyed? No survivors? "No, that's impossible! I was shot down by an unidentified aircraft!"

"It has confirmed to be a Decepticon attack, which _this_ one might be involved," he said, as he nodded towards the truck man.

"No," I stumbled backwards, and collapsed to the ground. No survivors? All my friends were there. They were my family. And the place was destroyed. No survivors.

"Everything will be fine, pilot Grace," the man who spoke approached and helped me up. "I'm Seth Troutman, agent of Cemetery Wind."

I stared up. I've never heard of this organization. But judging by the dressing of these people around me… I guess there wasn't any reason for them to lie to me with this big life-threatening alien around.

"Sir?" another scout ran our way from where the transformer was surrounded. "That alien is Optimus Prime."

"What?" Seth said. "For Savoy's sake, we'll see if we'll kill him."

"Wait, what?" I broke in abruptly. "Optimus Prime? I thought he was an Autobot!"

"Yet these aliens are all responsible for the human deaths they caused," Seth said coldly. "1,300 deaths in war of Chicago, Grace."

"Decepticons, yeah, but not the Autobots!" I tried to reason. "They've helped us out – things could've turned out even worse if it weren't them!"

"They came to our planet illegally," Troutman said.

"Even so, they're protected under the laws," I said.

He ignored me and turned to the transformer. I gritted my teeth in anger.

I looked around. These guys were heavily armed. Under rough estimation I guess there were enough munitions to take the Autobot down. And with these people saying they can kill an Autobot when I distinctly remember that the Autobots were protected under the laws, I decided not to trust them.

I followed Troutman, and passed by a car with its trunk left open. And a handgun was placed carelessly in heaps of stuff.

I scanned around and slipped the gun under my vest, acting casually. No one noticed.

"Optimus Prime," Troutman said in front of the alien. "Why are you running?"

"All Autobots are under targeted attack," Optimus Prime said. "Humans are hunting us down one by one."

"That's because your species is guilty for thousands of innocent lives," Troutman said. "I even lost my daughter at the war of Chicago."

"The Decepticons were the one who started the war," I broke in abruptly.

"Our planet will never be at peace until all of them are gone," he turned to me.

"Oh, yeah, then why did the government allowed KSI make transformer prototypes?" I challenged. "I heard their prototypes were infected and had a mass breakout a year ago."

"I'm ordering you to stand down, Grace."

"And I don't take orders from you; I only take orders from Colonel Williams."

"Who's probably dead by now," he reminded me. I could feel my cheeks heated up with anger.

"Remember who you've killed, Optimus Prime?" Troutman questioned Optimus. "Remember James Savoy and Harold Attinger, the two whom you've killed at Hong Kong a year ago?"

"They were helping Lockdown to hunt all of us down," Optimus said.

Troutman ignored that too.

"For Savoy's sake," he repeated this line again. And immediately I realized something was about to happen. "Kill him."

And everything seemed to happen in that one tiny second: guns on the car started to fire at the transformer and he returned, blasting a few cars up. I braced myself and stumbled backwards, and fell hard on the ground.

"Bring the missiles out!" I could hear Troutman shouting through the bullet shots. "Bring them out – and shoot him!"

I kicked myself backwards against one of the still firing cars, and pulled the gun out of my vest. An explosion – I whimpered as the ground beneath me shook.

A man, standing about ten meters to my right was yanking what seemed to be a shoulder-fired missile, loaded it and pointed it at Optimus.

I barely knew Optimus. I only knew he was an Autobot. I had no reason of helping him, but I felt like I had the duty to justify things I believe. And what I believed was these men had no right to kill him.

"STOP!" I screamed, pouring all my effort in my voice not to sound too cowardly. No one bothered to take notice of me. And I saw the man with the hand-held missile launcher, ready to pull the trigger.

I went out of my mind for a second. "HEY!" I shrieked, held the gun up and shot at him. With a BANG I saw him falling, yelping in pain and clutched his shoulder and dropped the launcher.

I regretted doing that immediately. Though not many people saw me doing that, Troutman was one of the witnesses. "You spilled human blood for alien metal?" he shouted at me. And I feared that he would take me out with his heavily loaded cars.

"LIGHT THAT HUMAN TRAITOR UP!" he screeched at his workmates, who were busy firing at Optimus.

Human traitor? That's the first time I earned that rank.

I ran, still bending myself low, and hid behind a car that was blown away. And I took a glimpse through the window as I ducked on the floor, and saw Optimus has fallen, but still firing, though clearly you could see he didn't bring much harm but distraction.

For that I was even more determined to help him. I kneeled up took another sniper on top of another car out with my gun. And I as I crumpled down and leaned against the car I could feel the car shielding me was receiving attack.

"STOP THIS!" I cried, as I took the risk and turned to shoot again. This time the bullet hit a car wheel.

"Weapons free! Weapons free, and kill the girl!" Troutman yelled again.

I began to panic. I'd be killed if they came and hunt me down.

"Help me!" I wailed for nothing and looked up to the sky.

For once in the whole day god seemed to have decided to help me. What appeared like an immense metal clamp grabbed hold of me and the next moment I realized I was back on the truck I was kidnapped on.

"Go! Go!" I yelled at the truck as it started to drive away at high speed. I glanced back and I saw Troutman and his man were busy swarming back into their cars, and tried to take their weapons that wouldn't fit in the seats clumsily.

Soon the pack was out of sight. I exhaled with relief.

And within five minutes we reached what appeared to be an abandoned factory. The truck stopped, and somehow I knew he wanted me to get off.

I leapt to the ground, which was when I realized my hand was still clasping the handgun tightly.

Optimus transformed back to his robot form. He seemed less than injured, though I couldn't judge.

"My gratitude for saving me back there, Johanna Grace," he said.

"Yeah, and for that I'm probably a loose fugitive by now," I said, and felt like I was a decadent. What was I called? A human traitor. What did people commented on me? Spilling human blood for alien metal. Yeah, that's basically who I was.

"Stay here till I'm sure we weren't followed. We are all targets now," Optimus Prime said.

The transformer transformed into his alternative truck mode. For once I could see it: a semi-truck with blue and red flame pattern as decorations.

It – or rather he drove away, leaving me standing alone in the middle of the deserted place.

For the first time in the day I felt exhausted. I collapsed to the floor, feeling helpless. I was alone, after all. Maybe except from having an alien transformer.

I shivered as a breezy November wind blew onto my face. Slowly I slouched down and curled into a ball on the floor. And the last thing I remembered before I fell asleep was hoping Optimus wouldn't be driving over me if he returned.


	3. Ch 3- I Meeted the Autobots

"… for a whole year?"

"A satellite of Jupiter. The remains of the Decepticon were there."

It was the voice of Optimus. I couldn't be mistaken. I opened my heavy eyelids and sat up, seeing about a hundred meters away from me was five gigantic figures, including Optimus. Dawn was lighting the horizons up.

"Decepticons?" a blue transformer with his back at me said.

"After the war, the remains of Decepticons went there, waiting for reinforcements and the chance to strike. The seed was set off and destroyed them all."

"What about the creators?" another even larger, grey one asked, biting what appeared to be like a giant cigarette in his mouth.

"Not even close to them. Though the last Decepticon came with this message before I killed him."

And a voice recording was played from Optimus, though I didn't know how it worked: "_This isn't the last seed you're holding, Prime… the last remains on Earth, and you'll never retrieve it. Nor your creators will…"_

"So, there's another seed, here on Earth?" a green and slightly smaller one asked.

"What's the seed?" I finally decided to ask as I stood up and approached them.

"So, the pathetic little fleshling finally decided to wake," the green said in a rather mean tone, drawing out a big shot gun and pointed it at me. "And she doesn't seem to be trustworthy, nothing like Cade. Can I take her out?"

"Okay, just tell me how many times do I still need to make this pose? I'm tired of this," I gestured surrender at the gun, hoping he didn't mean to do that seriously. All five of them turned to me. And suddenly i realized I was still holding the handgun in my right hand. I must had held it all night through. I quickly stuffed it into a random pocket of my survival vest, hoping I wouldn't appear as a hilarious doofus.

"Stop it, Crosshairs, she risked her life for mine," Optimus stopped him.

"That's exactly you what you told me about Cade before," the paunchy-looking Mr. Grey mumbled.

"You know what? That's exact what we need now: another human to take care of," the green one- Crosshairs complained. "This just makes everything a whole lot more complicated."

"Look," I said and put my arms down. "If you wish I'll go away. But I want to know what's the seed you guys are talking about?"

"A bomb," Crosshairs said.

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, a bomb, that's a great answer," I said. "Then what's so special about this bomb? It sounds like something big."

"Eons ago, the creators of our species set off thousands of seeds, which create our elemental metal to build us," the blue one said. "A year ago, we thought the seed we got from KSI was the last on Earth, which would mean harmony here."

"If it was true that there was another seed on Earth, Galvatron must be after it. We must find it before he reaches it," Optimus said.

"Wait, Galvatron? Do you mean Megatron?" I asked dumbly. I only knew him as the one who started the war of Chicago.

"Never mind that, they're the same anyway. Galvatron is a prototype built by KSI, which was infected by Megatron's devilish chromosomes," a little robot suddenly spoke, which I didn't realize he was standing on the grey one's shoulder. He had bulging eyes and Einstein-like crazy neon blue hair.

My head loaded the things slowly. There was this super bomb that releases metal that was used to build transformers. Then Mr. Megatron, aka Galvatron who started the Chicago war six years ago is once again alive, and was probably going after the last seed on Earth. And the Autobots had to stop that from happening.

"But… do you know where it is?" I asked.

"The history of our race was recorded in the AllSpark, which has been destroyed. Our only chance was to hope former Sector Seven had documents about them remaining," blue said.

"Or NEST," I suggested. "But both of them have shut down. So you actually have no idea of where to find it?"

"Our greatest chance is Cemetery Wind," Optimus said. "They have taken over all information of us."

"But where could their base be possibly in?" I said. "We have no – hold on, wait a second. Is Cemetery Wind a CIA organization?"

"Definitely. CIA agent Harold Attinger was the one who captured me after Chicago war. Who could've done that except from them?" the little robot said.

"Okay. So now we'll have to hack into their computers and find all the information we need. Story end," I organized the bits and pieces together. "So technically you'll have to break into their facility and get the information you need?"

"Technically. But we can't break into CIA just like that, not when all our heads are wanted. Besides we don't wanna repeat what happened in SOCCENT ten years ago," grey said.

It took me a while to get what he meant. Of course, SOCCENT. Ten years ago this base at Qatar was destroyed, and we the Americans were later told to be a Decepticon attack, which was trying to steal files from the military. If the Autobots just break in like that they would be repeating history only, which was risky to do.

"Hound's right," Optimus said. "That would only cause human causalities. No matter what we've done before, we've never intended to harm humans."

I believed him. That's what my colleague Danny said. They've never harmed any humans intentionally. And I suddenly realized Danny adjusted my point of view towards these alien, so severely that made me a human traitor, as Troutman said.

But still… not everyone agreed. They went for accidentally caused causalities. And they're counting what the Decepticons had done on the Autobots' head.

Suddenly an idea hit me. A plan formed in my head.

"If you can't break into CIA…" I said slowly. "What about me?"

I told them the plan. Crosshairs seemed wanted to object. But Hound made a few adjustments and the plan was improved. Though I couldn't determine if it was good enough.

When we finally got a conclusion a yellow Autobot, a one who had remained silent for most of the time questioned me, "But why would a human, a human like you would want to help us?"

I hesitated. I never thought of that. As an American I should've ran away. I should've reported them. most people would even think I should've died instead of, as Troutman said, spilling human blood for alien metal.

"I guess," I said. "Because I've nowhere to go. I don't want any such destructive bombs to be set off. And… I want to justify the things I believe is true. You've never intended to harm humans. You're the Autobots that fought for us."


	4. Ch 4- I Returned to Base

The Autobots were good at keeping promises.

I made a request before they took me to CIA headquarters: bring me back to my base first.

And so they did. The yellow scout, Bumblebee, who could transform into a camaro drove me back.

And I did not expect what I would've seen.

When I got off the car, I stood in a piece of bare wasteland that was once called Cannon Air Force Base, where I once called my home.

"My god," I murmured, clasping my hand over my mouth, unable to accept this actually happened. My home was destroyed.

I felt like I was drained in the inside. I couldn't believe it. This was my home.

I glanced around. Not a single facility was in sight. Nothing but collapsed buildings. Rocks. Remains of what the military aircrafts used to be.

I heard Bumblebee transformed behind me. "So," he said. "This is Cannon Air Force Base. No offense, but it does seem like what SOCCENT became after Blackout destroyed it."

My head buzzed as tears started to gather in my eyes, fighting to fall. But I forced them back.

"Give me an hour," I said hoarsely. "I'll meet you at the hanger."

"Um, where's the hangar?"

I could feel a lump in my throat. I gulped hard and said, "Sorry. I'll meet you here."

"Alrighty then."

I started to move forward, and my legs were unusually stiff, as if walking dead.

_These are the family housings,_ I thought, as I walked pass a road of collapsed buildings, remarkable with their nice-looking, cozily designed features. _And there goes the dorms, and the snacks bar is there… no, it __**used **__to be there…_

Every step seemed to have grown heavier and heavier, when every facility that was destroyed came into my sight. Sooner or later I realized I was standing in front of a place I was in before I left. One of the dining facilities, where I played a little jape on Edward, where I last met my friends…

I fell to my knees as I couldn't restrain my emotions anymore. "I'm sorry…" I sobbed uncontrollably, quavering, and somehow, feeling a little guilty. "I'm so sorry… if only I have fulfilled my job… if only I haven't been hit… I'm so sorry, I should've died to prevent this…"

And it hit me. The F-16 that entered our airspace… that's why I attacked it but it wouldn't fall. It was a Decepticon…

I wiped the tears off my face, though still trembling. I managed onto my feet shakily, and flashbacks of the good old times kept popping up in my mind. Halloween parties when everyone dressed up and trick people around. Birthday parties and get drunk. Playing pranks on others and joking around. Even the harsh physical training seemed such a distant but sweet experience. And Edward… he hardly joined us for a day. And that's where his life ended.

I continued walking on. And the more I see, the more emotions crushed me.

As soon as I have overcome the feelings I started to try and do something constructive, which would help with my plan. But no, everything was destroyed. Nothing would come in handy unless you need to bust someone's head at the moment.

By the bar was something I really could use, standing undestroyed. I was so relieved that I gasped. That was a drinking fountain. I could feel my dry throat hunger for water.

I ran towards it as if seeing a ray of light in complete darkness. Thankfully it could still function normally. Then I drank from it mouthful by mouthful, and two liters of water went down my throat easily.

I reached for the plastic bags in my survival vest and filled two of them up with water. They could serve me well anytime.

I started to make my way back to where I left Bee. I took a glance at my watch. Time really does fly, as I realized I was already three minutes late.

I returned to our meeting point, where I saw Bee sitting on a pile of bricks and things with his back to me. I could hear him speaking, though in an odd way, as if playing some random tapes and voice recordings.

"Young fellow, you are the person I care about most in my life." "If there is anything you need, I won't be far away." "There's some things you just can't change." _"…so that his sacrifice wouldn't be in vain! Hallelujah!"_ "Everything we worked for will be wiped out in one day!"

I got confused. "What do you mean, Bee?" I asked. He turned and saw me.

"I wasn't talking to you," he said.

"So… you're saying you're talking to someone invisible," I said, as I tried to read his expression, which was impossible to do. "You're missing someone, aren't you?"

"You're a nosy human, Jo!" he exclaimed and transformed into his alternate car form. I shrugged. I believe I got the point. He was missing someone. Whoever that person was… I guess I'd never know unless he tells me. "I suppose I am," I said. "I just never assumed you'd ever feel that way, hardcore warrior."

I tried to open the door of the car but it was locked. "What the- " I murmured. "Hey, Bee, it's not funny. Let me in!"

He wouldn't do as I said. Instead he started up his engine and drove away.

"Hey- hey- come back!" I yelled and ran after him. "That's not funny! Come back or I'll crack your windows!"

Of course that was impossible. I attempted to do that to Optimus but it didn't work.

He sped up instead. Soon our distance got widened.

"No no, that's not a joke!" I yelled. "Okay! I apologize for whatever I've said! I'm sorry!"

The yellow chevrolet stopped finally. I caught up with him and scolded, "You're so defensive, Bee. That makes you hard to get along with."

"_You little- "_ he began. Suddenly he stopped. The door flung open automatically and he said, "Get in, get in. Someone's here."

I entered the car and said, "I warn you, if you dare to trick me…"

"Shut up and just listen."

The car started up and drove away, and entered a place shortly later, which took me a while to recognize: one of our hangers. Deserted and about to fall apart, judging by its half-damaged structure, with piles of fallen apart facilities covering the entrance. I felt a bit both sick and uneasy at the thought.

I did hear something. Another engine roaring, and judging by the sound it should be a large vehicle, coming close to our place.

And then I saw something else. A black dot in the sky, flying towards our place and enlarging by the second, until a F-16 landed, and transformed into a gigantic robot.

And I realized… he was the one who hit me down.

He went to the right of our hiding point. I couldn't see them but I could clearly hear them.

"It's my honor to see you, Lord Galvatron…"

"Stop with all the nonsense, Fearswoop… where is my seed?"

So one's called Fearswoop and the other was Galvatron. Realizing although there's a wall between us, I was staying beside two ruthless killer robots, which made me panic. And they were even talking about the seed. That didn't sound good.

"I'm sorry, my lord… the information wasn't stored in this base…"

"And I can't even rely you on a single piece of information?"

And I heard some kind of sound like metal bumping and tearing, and someone yelping in pain.

"But my- my lord, Optimus Prime returned just last night… I saw him myself…"

"So Prime returned! I didn't expect that to happen this soon…"

What followed was a moment of intense and fearful silence, except from sounds of gigantic footsteps hitting the ground slowly and steadily, and a voice groaning lowly in agony.

"Prime couldn't have reached his creators so soon and return to Earth… and what can drives him back can only be the information of my seed…

"He must've gathered the Autobots for this. Do you know of their location?"

"I've- I've seen them, gathering a few miles from here, and they have mentioned about the seed- "

"Excellent! You'll continue to spy on them and report their actions to me. They'll be looking for the seed, and we can use them to help us. And I do not accept mistakes again, mark my word, Fearswoop…"

"Yes, lord Galvatron…"

And then came the noises the transformers make whenever they transform, and a F-16 took off and flew away from us.

So that's Fearswoop who just left. Just as I was about to exhale in gladness the sound came again, reminding me Galvatron was still around, though I couldn't be sure if he could hear me. An engine started up and roared as a silver semi-truck passed in front of us.

I paralyzed in shock for a moment, until slowly Bee drove out of our hiding point and out under the afternoon sun.

I got off the car and Bee transformed. "We have to warn the others," I said. "We have to change the plan. We can't let them succeed in their plan."

"The others already know," Bee said. He clicked a button on the side of his head and what sounded like an unstable radio connection was on.

I got it. He had been playing a live radio show to the Autobots for the whole time.

Bumblebee contacted onto them and asked what we should do. Their reply was strange. The plan hasn't changed at all. The only thing was we would be picking Brains, the tiny robot up at another spot.

"But why?" I said in exasperation. "We still have time! We can change the plan and…"

I paused for a better word. "We can't let them get whatever they want. We'll be dead if they have the information of the seed."

"They must have a reason to make that decision. They will find a way to sort that part out," Bee replied.

"Yeah, and I'm always the third wheel," I sighed.

Bee transformed into his alternate car form and I got in. "Don't be like this, Jo. If you're the third wheel, what am I? the fourth wheel? I don't know of their plan either."

"You have four wheels already," I pointed out.

Suddenly the driver's wheel shot towards me and I was just quick enough to block it before the wheel broke my nose. "Okay, okay, I forgot that one, that's the fifth one…" I jested. The wheel gave more pressure. "Okay, I surrender! Can you just stop?" I groaned. The wheel went back to its original place.

"I know you're strong, but you don't need to hit me that hard," I caviled as I massaged my arm that blocked the wheel. And I regretted saying that at once. That was exactly what Tyrell told me the day before. Reminding myself of that hurt so much.

"Don't blame me. You started that yourself," Bee protested. He started up his engine and drove away.

"So when can you arrive at CIA headquarters?" I asked. "Wait. It's at Virginia. That's at least a thousand miles."

"Don't worry. If we go at top speed it'll be a five-hour trip. If we go fast without breaking traffic rules it's seven."

"And it's 11am now," I said as I took a glance at my watch. "We'll pick up Brains now. And I want to do a bit of shopping before we get in."


	5. Ch 5- I Broke Brains into CIA

This was a total disaster from the very beginning.

I 'bought' some clothes from a store and changed my entire dress-up. You know, typical office lady suit and dress with high heels, which had never cooperated well with my feet.

I laid down my hair, which I normally don't do as it make me look like a zombie. No matter how much effort I have put, they never stay straight, shiny and smooth, or beautifully wavy as what most other girls' hair would appear to be. I even put on spectacles so no one was going to recognize me easily.

By dusk we arrived at the entrance of CIA headquarters, and my watch read 6:52pm, with Brains disguised as a laptop hiding inside a paper bag along with a large pile of papers and files. I got another big leather handbag which I also 'bought' earlier and managed to stuff my entire suit and the gun into the bag with the boots, except for my survival vest, which I threw away except some useful stuff. I stepped out of the car and took a deep breath, and instead of looking up to seem confident, I bended my head low.

"Wish me luck, Bee," I murmured to the car. "We'll be back as soon as we can."

The radio played a sound recording. "Let's get our job done, kiddo. Luck is ours."

I couldn't help from smiling. I peeped at the entrance of the place in front of me. People about to head home from work were swarming out of the place. And I spotted a man stuffing what appeared to be a card into his pocket.

I kept my head low, and somehow 'accidentally' bumped into that man. I dropped my bags, and the content in the paper bag spilled everywhere. "Oh my- " I gasped. "I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" I bended down and started to pick up my stuff, and the man helped me with that. Swiftly and acting unnoticeably I pulled the card out of his pocket.

"Your bag, miss," he said as he got my paper bag and stuffed the papers into it.

"Thank you," I squeaked, in a timid way.

"You seem familiar to me. Have we met before?" he asked.

"No," I squeaked immediately. "I assumed we've seen each other. After all, both of us work in the same place."

"I suppose so," he murmured, but I saw a hint of doubt in his eyes.

"I'm sorry but I left something back at office," I said lowly and hurried passed him. I swear I could hear him murmuring, "She did look oddly familiar."

When I reached the entrance I took a glance at the card I stole. It wrote 'Kelvin Mullins'. Bingo! I got the right card luckily.

I entered the building. And when I reached the scanning zone I scanned my 'worker pass'. I passed. No one stopped me or something. I kept my head low and thank goodness no one took notice of me. Until a guard came to me.

"Hello, lady, who could you be?" he asked in a kind of sickly sweet tone.

I kept my head low and remained silent, and held back the idea of punching this man hard in his big belly. "C'mon, don't be shy! Where are you heading? Are you new here?" he asked.

"I'm – I'm Jessica Hendricks," I squeaked as the first name popped into my head. "I'm new here, and… I'm an analyst… I left something in the lavatory…"

"Oh, I see, sweetie," he said. "I'll see you when you're done! I'm here till 5am!"

I bent my head even lower and hurried away. But I swear I could hear him saying behind me, "Strange, where the hell did I saw that chick? She looks oddly familiar."

I entered a deserted elevator, still keeping my head low and had my back to the CCTV in here. "I swear I'm gonna bust that guy's head one day," I muttered through gritted teeth.

The lift opened. And instead of the computer room, I went for the lavatory first, and hid myself inside a stall after hanging a sign on the door: Damaged.

I shoved my whole pilot suit out and put them back on. Then I dumped the new clothes and both bags except from the laptop and gun into the trash can and braided my hair down a side, and sat on the seat, only waiting.

And I got bored as I had nothing could be done. I studied the gun in silence, and after a while I opened the cartridge. Three storages weren't occupied. I had twelve bullets remaining.

How long have it been? I checked my watch from time to time. Two hours passed. Then three. And four. And finally my watch showed eleven as I almost dozed off.

I opened the stall door tentatively, and gripped the gun in my right hand tightly. No one was there of course.

I pulled the lavatory door open slowly and glanced around. Not even the slightest sign of people. Though I couldn't be sure if there were any hidden cameras around.

I tiptoed towards the analyst room in top speed, silent as a cat. I peered through the glass on the door. The room was dark and unoccupied. It should've been dark except… I saw a red laser light at one of the top corners. Security camera.

I couldn't take it out. Everyone will realize someone broke in immediately.

I gritted my teeth and pushed open the door. I ran as fast as I could towards a blind spot of the room that the camera couldn't reach. And I crept towards a computer that was near the blind spot. Hopefully the darkness might give cover for us and no one would see me.

I shoved the laptop onto the table. The laptop transformed, and Brains appeared. "Oh, that's a lot of computers!" he stretched and said as he looked around. "No worries, anyone will do." And to my surprise his right hand transformed into a USB and plunged it into one of the USB holders on the computer.

"Just hurry, I don't want to get us panned," I scanned around the place nervously. As I scanned to the door I decided to sit on the floor leaning against the table behind. When I looked back to Brains, I saw him working in a weirdly-genius way on a computer. And the monitor showed 'Downloading all files'.

"What?" I gasped as I saw it. "Are you out of your mind? Just get the right stuff and go! We have no time for other useless things!"

"Number one, little girl, these things aren't useless at all, they come in handy anytime," Brains said as he typed something quickly, so fast as if his hands were motors. "And number two, are you judging my intelligence? I've been through much more things than you."

"Like, what? Being in the war of Chicago? Or getting imprisoned by KSI?" I taunted. "And that wasn't something glorious that's worth boasting. I heard from Bee that it was you who helped reactivated Galvatron. So technically, it's all _your_ fault to start this whole disaster."

"Learn to control your mouth, Jo," he warned as he spared his free hand and transformed it into another mini gun. I rolled my eyes and gestured surrender again, though I doubted the power of this gun, but I decided not to challenge him anymore. These aliens kickass and you never know how powerful can the tiniest thing they own can even be.

'43% downloaded' was shown on the computer. I must say I was amazed at this. That was a large amount of files and he could manage all this in such a short period.

I looked around just to ensure we weren't bugged. And when I turned back to the screen it was already 54% downloaded.

"You're amazing. How could you manage to do that?" I blurted out my appreciation. On the monitor I could see the reflection of Brains grinning.

"We are a much advanced species than you poor pathetic humans," Brains said. "We excel in many things much more than you humans do."

"Weaponry and technology, yeah," I admitted. "But not everything."

"And what's so special that you are more advanced in than we do?" he said. "Wastage? Bad government systems?"

"They are," I said. "And I think… humanity."

"Humph. And why should we be need humanity?"

"We humans normally feel guilty when we're responsible for a death. That's because we have humanity," I said slowly. "We know killing is against nature's law. Even how cruel a wolf is, it never kills its child.

"And I know much about you guys. And I once saw it myself. You Autobots don't harm humans on purpose, but it seemed you never hesitate when it comes to killing the Decepticons, your race members…

"For once in a while, I couldn't help from asking myself: what would happen if you still have a sense of sanity, if you still have humanity remaining in you?"

Brains didn't respond. His eyes remain fixed onto the screen, his reflection was deadpan. And the progress suddenly slowed down. 56% was downloaded.

"Hey, what's going on? Why are you slowing down?" I asked. I hoped to get out of the place as soon as possible. And what happens afterwards… what must come will come.

"Nothing, nothing. Just don't distract me," Brains said. He sped up suddenly.

I took a glance around again. No one passed by. No one could see us. By then 82% of all documents were downloaded.

"Have you got what we need?" I asked.

"Of course, it's in the first 14%. Just haven't looked through them carefully," he said.

"Great," I murmured. "Just hurry." And at the moment 99% was downloaded.

"Hey Jo, you're here," Brains said as the monitor showed 'Download complete'. He opened a document and I gasped at sight of it.

It was a wanted poster issued by Cemetery Winds officially. And on that poster was the application photo of me when I applied for air force, marked 'Johanna Grace'. And there was a remarks… post it up in CIA.

I finally got it. That's why everyone said I looked oddly familiar. They couldn't recognize me fully when I was disguised as another person, but they've seen this photo of mine.

"Oops," I said, trying to sound calmer than I was. "Well, I kinda expected that to happen, but I haven't thought of that when we made the plan. So how should we get outta here?"

The original plan was we thought to blow up the analyst room after we've deleted all Cemetery Wind files stored in every CPU to create a diversion, attracting the guards to be there so we could escape easily through the windows, where Bumblebee would be waiting for us. But I fear I would trigger the alarm myself if I even get in sight of the security cameras.

"We have a plan change," Brains said. "Since the seed is overseas, and we'll need a transport, blah blah blah, we'll go downstairs to the basement hanger, where something will be waiting for us at the moment."

He opened another software and entered things. I couldn't get much of what he was doing except from he was like sending takeoff permit and command for some transport.

"So what exactly is that transport? Can it carry us all?" I doubted aloud. I believe no transport that humans created would ever be designed for five gigantic transformers and a human girl to stay in. maybe NEST did, but surely they were either destroyed or stored in other military bases, definitely not under CIA headquarters.

"There we are, here we go," Brains said with finality as he unplugged his USB-hand from the CPU. Then he threw what appeared to be a mini metal screwer-like item on the floor. "Let's go to B7 level. It's waiting."

He transformed back into a laptop. I held it before my chest and once again, bended my head low and strode out of the room for the elevator and pressed the B7 button.

And as we went out there was a glass door, with a security lock which only an authorized worker card could open it.

I took out the worker pass I stole and scanned it. It didn't work. Suddenly the lock beeped and a red light was lit and kept blinking. I realized I did trigger the alarm finally.

"Okay, since they're going to get us anyway, we'll use a little force," I said. I took out the gun and shot at the glass door. It didn't even make a crack on it. I shot a few times more but soon realize it was bullet-proof. No good.

Out of frustration I kicked it hard. The alarm was still ringing. Without warning the laptop transformed and Brains said, "No worries, a little programming work will do. Hold me to that lock."

I held him towards the lock and he connected it with his hand, which once again transformed into some kind of connecting device. I couldn't see any observable workings, until the light turned green and with a sharp 'beep!' the door slid aside, and we entered the room.

"Whoa," I said, as I saw what Brains led us to. A super massive alien ship, which I recognized to be one of those in Chicago war I've seen on TV.

"Yep, human artifacts might not be designed to serve for our purpose, but alien designs do," Brains said, as if he could read my mind. "They've redesigned it in KSI, which they forced me to help with that. But that wasn't a problem, I'll get how to work it in a jiffy."

He leapt off my hand and went towards the ship. I followed him, when suddenly the card-scanning device lighted up with a blinking red light again and sending sharp beeping.

"They know we're here," I said. Brains was at the entrance of the ship.

"I can start it up, but it still takes time," he warned.

I bit my lip. Then I made my mind and said, "You drive it outta here. I'll be the diversion."


	6. Ch 6- I Became a Firing Target in CIA

The elevator was about to close the doors before I entered. Luckily I was fast enough.

I entered the lift and turned for a last glance at the room behind me. Whatever Brains was trying to do, he hadn't started the ship up.

The lift went up before I even pushed any buttons. Someone clicked for it then. I loaded the gun and had my back sticking to the button panel, right beside the elevator door.

I prayed the little screwer-shaped little pin Brains gave me would work. I closed my eyes and pressed the button on it.

The force of the explosion was so great that even the lift shook. I whimpered and decided I will never doubt these aliens' abilities anymore. The analyst room just exploded because of that little bomb Brains left behind.

With a soft 'ding!' the elevator stopped at level B3.

"Freeze!" I screamed as I turned in front of the door and pointed the gun when the invader was about to enter. To my surprise a young man in a formal suit stood there, his fingers sliding on the screen of his iPhone with a pile of files and papers under his armpit. He looked up and saw my gun. Then he dropped everything and screamed like a little girl, and ran for his life.

I rolled my eyes and lowered my gun. The door closed again and continued to go upwards.

I returned to my original position. And this time I decided to play smart before my rush attitude kill me.

The doors slid open as the soft bell rang again. This time, nobody entered as I was still frozen at my hiding position.

"C'mon, let's go, no one's here," a guy said roughly. Then sound of footsteps went away as the doors shut again. I exhaled in relief.

I took a glance at my watch. 12:27am. Time went really slowly.

The door opened again and I was at the ground floor. For a few seconds nothing happened. No one said anything or entered. As I was about to turn and get out a few bullets flew passed me before my eyes, hitting the back of the lift. I gasped and turned back. I was targeted inside the lift.

The firing paused. I took a deep breath and made up my mind to go for the big show. I turned and fired at the entrance for a few times and took a glance at the situation. Two big guards with gigantic machine guns turned and used the pillars to take shelter. Three lifts were on my both sides.

I turned back to where I hid and panted softly. That was a life-risking challenge.

They fired once more, and I could hear one of them shouting, "She's here! Ground floor! Send all help if you can!"

I was dead. This level was the top level the lift could go. If I wanted to go for higher levels I had to change lifts.

They were still firing, and I wasn't hit so far. So far only. I couldn't stay for long. The back board of the lift was hit with dozens of bullet holes as decoration.

I risked my hand and fired again, and they paused immediately. I guessed they still weren't sure how much firing strength my gun had, which, to be honest, was really weak when compared to theirs. I turned out and saw a lift to my left wasn't occupied. I covered fire and ran for both the lift and my life at top speed. I pressed the button '3' repeatedly and leaned against the button board.

As soon as I stopped firing they returned fire, and before long they realized I was in another lift. I could feel the door was receiving fire at full strength as it was fully shut.

A thing popped into my head suddenly. _How many bullets have I used?_ It was a total of… nine. I had three bullets left.

The lift reached its destination. It opened its door, and I peeped round the edge slowly. A bullet almost hit my eye and I was barely quick enough to turn back.

Once again my place of hiding was receiving fire. I peeped at what I could see diagonally, and a corridor entered my sight.

_C'mon, a strategy, a tactic!_ My head raced and buzzed, while the bullets were hitting the board repeatedly as background music.

Run for the corridor? Nah, I'd be killed if I dared to step out of the place. Even so I wasn't fast enough. I mean, I could be fast enough in responding, not running. I could beat Tyrell with a little help of physical status because he was already quite slow in military standards.

And at that thought an idea occurred to me. I got the knife out of my boot and prayed that this dumbest plan would work on me. When the firing ceased a little I once again risked my right hand, not firing but throwing the knife, my life-saving tool towards whoever was firing at me.

"Whoa, watch out!" someone shouted as they ceased fire fully, and this time, to my astonishment, was a woman's voice. And she probably had company. A little clank of my knife hit the ground, and I already had ran for my life towards the corridor.

A guard followed me and in this maze- like place with a crossroad every few meters, I knew I wouldn't be able to keep him away for too long.

I used my last three shots, and I helplessly threw the gun backwards at the guard chasing after me. He kept firing, once or twice in every corridor, and god seemed to bless my luck and I was still in a whole piece.

Another corridor to my right. I ran for it again and when I entered the passageway, a black figure of a woman with ear- length short hair stood at the end of my way. She raised her gun and with a loud long bang, she fired at me, and the next moment I realized I slid onto the ground, falling hard on my back, and covering my right ear, which was echoing the sound of the gun, buzzing my head for real and made my sight woozy and worst of all, blowing a piece of my right ear off, which was bleeding.

"Nice one, Nerissa," I barely made out the guard who was chasing after me said.

"Let's call for Cemetery Wind. We've got the girl," the female guard Nerissa said as she approached me. She grabbed hold of my arm and with a forceful pull she forced me up, and I yelped and almost blacked out in pain, and covered my bleeding ear even harder.

My brain was left with nothing but the sensation of pain stabbing my ear, and all my instincts screaming and echoing the word '_run!_'. And with little sense to the world I realized I was being dragged away by the two guards. The woman Nerissa was speaking to her walky-talky: "Get me a first aider. The fugitive's hurted."

"Shouldn't you be getting me to hospital? This is just so inhumane," I groaned, but only worsening my status.

"Cemetery Wind will be arriving in ten minutes," Nerissa said with a cold smile. "I'm afraid we don't have the time to get you there. Then afterwards… we'll see if you're cooperative after the little conference."

I could feel the blood in my veins turning into ice. There's no way of escaping unless I can contact onto the Autobots. But I didn't even know where they were at the moment. Nor any ways of contacting onto them.

"Can you let me go to the toilet for a moment?" I pleaded as the idea of escape formed in my head. "It's been ages."

Nerissa hesitated as she bit her lips. "Let her go, it wouldn't matter as you go with her, Ner," the male guard said.

"Fine," Nerissa snapped. "And don't call me Ner, you dolt."

_Oops, I'm doomed, _I thought. I stumbled onto my feet as she forced me away. I didn't thought of that arrangement. I assumed they would wait at the door only.

We entered a women's washroom after a few turns along the corridor. Nerissa pushed me to the washing basin table and folded her arms, and said, "Do what you must, Grace. We don't have all day."

I blinked hard and shook my head. The pain ceased slightly, as I tried to focus my sight and stared into the mirror.

And god… did I really looked that terrifying? My tightly tied braid loosened a little, and my right cheek was half-covered with blood. With trembling hands I collected a little tap water and cleaned my face, but I dared not to touch the wound.

"Hey, Ner, when'll the medic arrive? This is just so unbearable," I forced a brave smile, looking at the guard's reflection in the mirror. Her face hardened as I mentioned her nickname.

"The medic's in the conference room. And your time is up," she snapped and dragged me away, with water and blood still dripping off my face.

I walked all the way into the elevator with her pulling my arm with a tight grip. She pressed the button marked with '2' and we entered into a conference room on the second floor, where a first aider and her partner were waiting.

She pushed me into a chair with a glass wall behind. The scenery outside was still dark as ink, except from a few street lights.

The medic came and cleaned my wound, which I tolerated painfully. And after he cleaned my wound with some alcohol he gave me a piece of sterile gauze. "Hold it onto the wound, that shall do the trick," he said. I did as he said.

By then I could focus myself onto things better, though my hearing was still messed up with buzzing still echoing in my ear and lights were dancing in my eyes. "What? Don't I need any stitches or something?" I asked.

"Even if I know how to, we don't have the equipments," he frowned and shrugged as he packed his things back into his box. I rolled my eyes and leaned onto the seatback. "Sorry, ma'am, can't help in this case."

The door opened and a man with unmistakable pair of cold blue eyes entered. The two guards nodded towards him and left with the first aider, locking the door behind them. Every instinct in me tightened and murmured, _oh, crap, I'm dead._

Seth Troutman, agent of Cemetery Wind sat at the opposite side of the table. "Pleasure to meet you again, Miss Grace."

"Say what you must, I'm in no mood for chitchat," I growled through gritted teeth. Half of this was because the pain on my ear. The other half was because I hated him for calling me a human traitor and firing at me. And he even was in charge of issuing this wanted poster of mine, and technically, I see him as part of the one both responsible for having me injured, both him and Nerissa.

His facial expression hardened. "Then I do wish you cooperate with us, Miss Grace," he said in a hateful tone. "Lying to us wouldn't be good for your health."

I got what he meant. If I lied they wouldn't bring me to hospitals for proper treatment on my wound. Nerissa hinted that beforehand too.

"Would you please tell me, Miss Grace, what is the exact location of the Autobots?"

I could easily guess what he wanted from me. But I couldn't betray the Autobots. I didn't know them much except from hearing about them from my colleague Danny, but both Bumblebee and Brains were going along well with me. It was against my will to sell them out.

"And why should I tell you that?" I crossed my arms and leaned forward on the table.

"To prove you're an American."

"Well that's news. I should tell you where the Autobots are because I'm an American? This is total bullshit."

He rose to his feet and drew his gun out at me, around my head. "Having that little edge on your right ear wasn't quite nice-looking, Miss Grace. I'll balance your looks if you do not tell me."

Oops. He wanted to shoot at my left ear. On the inside I was terrified, but my normal haste and frivolous attitude made me sprouted the words before I could stop myself from saying such stupid thing: "If you want to balance my looks please do help me cut my fringe. They're not divided evenly, you see."

He gritted his teeth and was ready to pull the trigger anytime. "You have three seconds, Grace."

"Okay okay! I tell you! They're in California!" I said as the first place popped into my head.

He lowered his gun. "California? Shouldn't they be around with you?"

_Doofus, _I cursed in my heart. "Look, if they came with me you guys should've known ages ago, am I right? Or you're too stupid to know that?"

"Miss Grace, I'm asking you politely: Where. Is. Optimus. Prime?" he said, his grip tightened onto the gun.

"Oh, simple as that, right?" I decided to play along and make stories up and start off with teasing him. "He's at Hong Kong, California, Canada, in case you didn't realize."

"Hong Kong, Cali…" he murmured as he looked down. Then he realized I was making fun of him and stared at me murderously. "I'm warning you, Grace, do not tempt…"

His line was cut as he stared at something by my head, his eyes bulging in shock. And I heard something like an aeroplane taking off approaching from behind. I stood up and saw it. It was…

Brains started up the ship and somehow found the Autobots. They were all aboard.

I turned back and ducked just in time, before Troutman blasted my head apart with his gun. The bullet hit the glass wall behind, but it was also bullet-proof.

Nevertheless, it wasn't Autobot-proof. The two guards entered when Drift, the blue samurai Autobot smashed the glass wall and reached his gigantic palm to me and said, "C'mon, we have no time to waste. Get in here!"

"The Autobots are at CIA headquarters. Send all help!" Troutman yelled, and the two guards started their walky-talkies and shouted, "Autobots are here. Send all help you can and take them out!"

I leapt onto Drift's hand and he caught me, and placed me at the entrance of the ship.

I managed onto my feet and turned at the three people, staring like three idiots at us.

"Hey Drift, give them a little shock, but don't kill 'em, okay?" I looked up to the samurai with a sly smile.

"Pleasure," he replied.

"Hey, a-holes! Sayonara!" I yelled and waved goodbye.

Nerissa angrily pulled out the heavy machine gun on her back and started firing as I ran to my right for the sake of my little pathetic life. And I saw Drift fired, and the glass building was blasted open with a mighty explosion. And we took off and flew away, as the entrance door closed behind Drift.


	7. Ch 7- I was Trapped in Endless Fighting

I have to admit one thing: never underestimate anything owned by these aliens, the transformers.

I managed my way forward, and reached what appeared to be the controls room, where a vast glass screen with statuses and controls in a faint blue neon light stood in front of a wall, right beside the passageway that could pass to the front of the ship, and dozens of computers and techs were lining up in rows, strongly reminding me of E-3 Sentry AWACs. Brains was standing on a glass panel in front of the gigantic screen, tapping some buttons and controls I couldn't see. There was a chair in front that seems like I could fit in.

"Hey, Brains," I said as I approached him. "Everything's good?"

"Everything under control, status's good," he replied. "Optimus is at the front, Crosshairs and Hound are at the back checking out stuff the humans have changed, and Drift went upstairs where Bumblebee was. Suppose they'd start a fight over childish and faults."

"Oh, alright," I replied light-heartedly. The two of them wouldn't just start a fight for that, would they?

November wind was blowing sharply onto my face, as if a knife. "Isn't there air conditioning device here?" I complained.

"Suppose KSI had been considering this so-called environmental issue when designing this ship. No, there isn't any air conditioning device as you said so, no windows, no nothing. Only walls with window framings and so on," he replied.

"Oh, okay then," I murmured, crossing my arms. My jumpsuit was keeping me at a reasonable body temperature, but that did not help with my face.

"How much did they change about this ship?" I wondered aloud.

"A lot," he said, still working on the panel. "Like this, a brand new controlling system, but simple as ABC. You'll see a lot along the way! They're even genius enough to put in spacesuits at the back! Ain't that a joke?"

"Wow, multipurpose ship, that's awesome," I murmured.

That's when I saw the wound on my ear through my reflection on the screen. I couldn't help from touching the still stabbing-painful wound, where a half-circle was on the edge of the ear, in an angry red without blood, and I guess the bullet that pierced through the ear must have been 20mm in diameter.

I put down the hand and slid my palm over the corner of the smooth, cold glass panel. And without warning the ship slowed down and slanted aside to the left.

"Whoa- whoa!" I gasped as I fell to my back and slid to the edge, as I hear the bangings of heavy stuff in the ship. I slammed my back hard on the left of the ship, which, I wasn't sure why, sent a burning pain sensation to my right ear right up the spine. I groaned and massaged the ear, but only worsened the situation.

Brains somehow managed to grab hold onto the control board and resumed the ship to its normal angle, its normal position. Optimus stumbled into the place from the front and asked, "What happened? Is there anything wrong?"

I managed onto my feet and rubbed the back of my head, while raising the other arm and said, "Nothing, sorry, just the troublemaker me ruining stuff again, I guess."

The two of them looked at me, one blamefully and other suspiciously. "I'll just, um, go to the back," I pointed to the back stiffly. "I won't start any more trouble. I'll try not."

I took a glance over the room. What was strange was nothing fell out of their place. Not even one computer. Nor the chairs did.

Crosshairs and Hound were at the back checking on stuff in a circular room, as Brains had said. Though I could see them complaining and rubbing their wrists and back in the middle of a mess, about the error of the ship beforehand.

"Hi, Hound, how's things going on here?" I asked.

"Been a mess. Brains must've made an error and the ship was slanted. Everything fell off and we've gotta clean that up," he said. I stared at my boots guiltily, and I could feel my cheeks being heated up when I swore to myself silently that I'll never, ever tell them the truth.

"Can I help? It's a hell of boredom here if I can't do a thing," I pleaded.

"I assume all the ammunitions over there fell out of the shelves. Think putting them back wouldn't be a too difficult task," Hound pointed to a door which lead me into another similar room, but filled with most kinds of modern weapons and munitions you can name. Hopefully there weren't nuclear weapons.

I managed to place most machine guns back to their shelves, but not the massive things that appeared to be grenades, I didn't know.

Crosshairs entered and helped. I was putting a few missile launchers onto some kind of like exhibition board when I finally asked, "Brains said we are going overseas. Where exactly was he meaning?"

"As usual, the human is the dumbest. Shouldn't the researcher have the clearest idea of the destination we're heading to?" Crosshairs mumbled as he peered through a window to the back, as I realized instead of glass, the 'window' had nothing covering between the inner part of the ship and the outside world. The window seemed to be as large as the CIA entrance door was, with only a railing with height reaching only the top of my thighs. That's why the place was so cold and the wind was blowing as fiercely as a lion roars, which I first suspected an air conditioner was there only. So imagine leaning out … I'd fall out of the place easily, like how simple it was to commit suicide.

"Where's the seed?" I asked quietly, as I looked out of the place, compressing the anger that was filling my chest, ending up worsening the buzz in my ear. Crosshairs had been rude and harsh enough to me over the day.

"Humph. It's in Europe. In…"

BANG! The weird, annoying buzz in my ear ended finally when our ship was hit, assuming it was on the wall right in front of Crosshairs. Alarms began to ring all over the ship as a woman's voice record said, "Warning. Aircraft under attack. All military units please proceed to your firing units."

I moved away from the window and peered through it, and made out… a figure of a F-22. My beloved working companion. And there must have been more than five followers out there.

Instead of going to 'firing units' as mentioned, we ran back to the front, where everyone assembled in the controls room, where a few alarm lights were lighted and flashing in a disturbing red.

Hound stepped onto two tables filled with cables, wires, computers and stuff when he dashed into the place. "Ow, Hound, I'll need that!" Brains complained loudly at his working position. "My apologies," Hound said.

"Seems like there's finally someone who broke my ruining record today, huh?" I laughed nervously, patting Hound's foot.

"Hound and Crosshairs, you'll take down the incomers from the back," Optimus directed us to our positions like a true leader. "Drift and Bumblebee, you'll go to the front- "

"I'm not going anywhere with this insolent kid, he'll break today's ruining record," Drift growled.

Dead air. I made a facepalm. So did Optimus. "I'll go with you, Drift. Bumblebee, stay here and guard the room. Brains might need help anytime. As for you, Jo… you can stay here if you like," he said.

"Hey, wait, you aren't sending anyone to check on the top?" I asked abruptly as everyone was about to head for their positions. They stared at me as if I made a weird and nonsense suggestion. "I mean- they might send in bombers and attack the top!"

"She's right," Brains said, as he switched something and I saw a radar inbound filtration sensor and a 3D diagram of the ship appeared on the screen. I saw six jets detected incoming from the back, two were heading for the sides. On the 3D diagram two appeared to be gaining height, going above the ship.

"Scrap," Hound murmured. "Bee, you'll take the topside. Let's get our work done."

"Wait, you're leaving me alone here?" Brains said loudly.

I suppressed a laughter as everyone went for their posts, leaving Brains staring. "Don't worry, Brains, no one's gonna attack you as long as I'm outta here. Besides, who with sanity can shoot us?" I said.

Bumblebee grabbed a railing on the level above and swung himself upwards, landing on the second level, his combat mask covering his face and his hands transformed into cannons, ready for the game to begin anytime. "Open the top, Brains, you're the head of controls," Bee said.

Brains sighed as he did as he was told, and the overhead cover slid open. The clear night sky was glittering with thousands of stars, except for a hovering black figure. I could hear the machine working above us and the roaring breezy wind clearly, when the buzzing has faded. Only now dizziness replaced it.

Bee shot at the target's right flap for several times, and it finally broke apart and fell to the right.

I could hear distant screaming from both the front and back, and firing. I wished so badly I could help.

The other on top dropped something down. Brains turned the ship hard and avoided it, and I could hear the bombs exploding on the earth below.

"Don't you guys have any auto guns or something hidden on this ship?" I shouted and the world around me swirled, and I felt like drunk.

"Don't expect that, Jo; it was meant to be a drone ship carrier at first!" Brains replied when an explosion hit the back without warning. The ship once again slanted aside.

"Those bastards- what the hell is this now?" I was thrown aside and slammed my back onto the wall again by force.

"One engine's down- nothing to worry about, I'm starting up a backup," Brains said.

"Guys- uh, a little help?" Bumblebee said. I looked up. They had sent help. I couldn't see any stars overhead. They've outnumbered Bee and was returning fire like mad.

"Brains- Brains- any NVGs here?" I shouted as I stumbled onto my feet.

"What? NVGs? What are you saying?" he yelled. "Look, I'm a little busy here, can't you find it on your own?"

"Night vision goggles! I can't see a thing on top!" I yelled as my brain started to run. _Think, think, where could they be?_

"Fine! Have it your way!" I shouted and ran for the back when finally the answer hit my head. Distant behind Brains yelled incredulously, "Wait- don't! you're leaving me alone here?"

At the back where the firing balconies were stood Crosshairs and Hound, each occupying a window returning fire.

"What the- " Hound shouted as he saw me. "Duck!" Crosshairs shouted and both of us did as said. A missile hit the wall behind me and engulfed in flames.

"Crosshairs- night vision goggles! Where are they?" I asked as I stood up.

"Don't ask me! See for yourself in the ammunitions room!" he said as he took two jets down.

"Damn you, Crosshairs! I'm gonna slice you apart!" I yelled as I covered my head and ran for the room, and heard him mumbling, "Whatsoever you say!"

"Okay, goggles, where are you…" I murmured as I scanned through the lockers and shelves of munitions and collapsed heaps of objects. Finally I found two beneath a mountain of grenades and put one on, and of course, I saw nothing in this lighted room. I grabbed a missile launcher along with a bag of equivalent shells before I left.

The ship slanted again as I grabbed a railing just in time before I fell. "Hound- Hound! Exactly how many backup engines do we have?"

"Six! Four still not in use now!" Hound replied.

The front tilted suddenly and again, I was thrown to the floorboard and almost broke my neck when I hit the wall behind. And we were losing height fast, just imagine what was happening when you were on a roller coaster, which was running down a cliff-like slope after a long, slow climbing.

"ARGHHHH!" I screamed.

"Uh-oh, we're gonna crash," Crosshairs said light-heartedly.

Without warning the aircraft gained height, and I could see all incomers were sticking to our ass from the window: three massive bombers. Five F-22s. Two choppers I couldn't identify. Four A-26 Invaders. All in pursuit. And I couldn't be sure if I had missed out any more.

"Oh, shit," I muttered. "Reinforcements! NOW!" and off I ran back to controls room, partly for reporting what I saw, partly was merely for my pathetic but precious little life. And I kept running into things on the way, with my NVG on.

"I saw that, girl!" Brains shouted. "And there's more incoming from the east, and we're gonna crash into them in three minutes time!"

"Incoming!" Bee shouted overhead as a bomber, a fear-bringing B-2 spirit appeared above us. Mind being wiped blank with fear, my hands reacted even before my brain commanded to do so, and shoot a missile up, hitting its flap.

I launched three hits in a row, and brought the bomber down. "Nice one, Jo!" Bee said as he took out another.

"Okay, guys, we have a bad news and a good news. Which do you want to listen to first?" Brains announced through the speaker, which his voiced resounded in the whole chamber, and the ship.

"BAD NEWS!" I screamed, along with Bee, Hound from the back and Drift from the front. Though I could still hear Crosshairs yelling, "GOOD NEWS!" from the back. I supposed he wouldn't stay peaceful and stop messing around unless I cut his throat up.

"Bad news is we're running low on stability and fuel," Brains announced through the speaker, which his voiced resounded in the whole chamber, and the ship. "We couldn't stay long as long as we're trapped here."

"What's the other issue?" Optimus shouted from the front.

"Everyone, hang onto whatever you can grab hold on," Brains said, with a wild grin on his face reflected on the board. Immediately the head of the ship turned upwards and the gravity turned to the tail of the ship. I was only spared as Bumblebee caught hold of me in time.

"What's the good news? Make it straight!" I complained loudly as I could feel the wind blowing onto my face hard, from the head of the ship, and I was wagging madly within the grip of Bumblebee.

"Good news is, we're heading to outer space. There's no one coming with us in space."


	8. Ch 8- Here I Come, Space!

"You're joking! We're going anywhere except space! **I'm dying** anywhere but space!" I cried like a lunatic, waggling like mad to break free from Bee's grip.

"Sorry, Jo, I'm not joking," Brains said.

"How am I supposed to _breathe_? I can't stand for a minute without- hang on there," something hit my mind. "Bee, let me go. I'll take care of my own business."

"You sure?" he said uncertainly, but eventually placed me on the floorboard, which must had been forty-five degrees in angle. "Just be careful."

I stumbled onto the foot, but fell and slid all the way backwards/ downwards all the way to the back of the ship, on this slope. And eventually I bumped into my big alien metal friends at the back, and what's miserable was I hit into them with my injured ear. I almost blacked out.

"Sorry, Jo," Hound said as he saw me groaning and messaging my still-painful ear, in hopes of easing the pain. That didn't work, of course. "Are you sure you can still go on?"

"Can _she _go on? Hound, she's just a human, and humans are vulnerable," Crosshairs did not forget to taunt me even at this time.

And I got mad at it. Did he just say humans are _vulnerable_? Just because we are spiral-cord organisms and way smaller does not mean we're vulnerable when comparing to these gigantic metal aliens.

"Don't worry, Mr. Mech, I am tougher than I look. I was born for fighting, and I've been through worse," I said through gritted teeth, grabbing hold of my damaged ear tight and forcing a smile on my face at him. I must've looked horrible, for he stared strangely at me, his expression hard to read.

"She sounded like…" Hound murmured.

"Ironhide," Crosshairs finished.

"What? Ironhide? Who's Ironhide?" I asked abruptly, which sounded exceedingly dumb. Their reaction to my line was unpredicted, and they nodded gravely at each other.

"WARNING. OXYGEN LEVEL GETTING LOW. ALL CREW MEMBERS PLEASE PUT ON YOUR SPACE SUITS. AIRCRAFT COUNCELLER PLEASE TURN ON OXYGEN SUPPLY ASAP," the announcement voice came again, before either bots before me could reply. The red alarm lights shone brighter and blinked even faster.

"Hurry, the space flight supplies are in that room," Hound pointed to a room on my left, right opposite to the ammunitions room. "I'd give myself five minutes before we enter space. It's your only chance, Jo."

"I'd say three," Crosshairs mumbled. "Hurry up! I don't want to see you floating out dead!"

Half-paralysed in fear, I dashed into the room they guided me into with a blank mind.

And standing before me was rows of spacesuits standing, arranged nicely and neatly. I picked the one standing nearest to me, which was also the smallest and the most suitable for me.

"Hurry up, Jo! We have no time to waste!" Crosshairs shouted outside. I grabbed the suit and removed the helmet from the top. I tried to squeeze into it, but it was when I realised mt boots would not allow it. Spacemen weren't supposed to be wearing army boots. Or pilot G-suits.

"Shoot!" I shouted, as I tried to untie my shoelaces and kick them away in top speed. And it was obvious that rush and fear wouldn't help in my case. My hands kept fumbling through knots and the floorboard below my feet was vibrating and shaking violently in a sharp angle, as if the ship was ready to fall apart anytime.

With great effort I finally kicked off both my boots, but it was also when I slipped, along with the spacesuit I was grabbing. I slammed onto the wall behind hard, and was only an inch away from the shieldless window.

"JOHANNA!" Hound screamed. I struggled to pull up the entire suit over my body and zipped it up to my neck, and pulled the tight hoodie attached to it over my head with my braid stuck inside. That's when I realised the most critical thing I needed was the helmet.

The helmet rolled backwards from the front of the room to me, and was heading to the shieldless window pane. Stupidly I jumped for it before it rolled out and fall into the endless fall on earth, and slammed it over my head, and rotated it rightwards until I hear a faint _click!_ Indicating it was secured.

Wait… how should I turn on oxygen supply in the tank attached to my back? God! After all the effort to fight for staying alive I didn't want to die with that one, simple, idiotic failure!

The ship slanted even more backward and sideways in all of a sudden. I gasped as I was thrown aside, and shrieked as I fell out the window.

I grabbed hold onto the railing just in time, but the space suit was too heavy, when it was added up with my weight and the pull of gravity. I couldn't hold long, no matter how strong I was.

"No, no…" I gasped as I stare upwards, into the ship. I could feel the air inside the suit slowly burning up as I panted for breath, and all of a sudden time seemed to be going slowly, like water flowing around me as my sight became cloudy, the alarm lights blinking slowly as if a movie was playing in slow motion on my helmet…

Was I dying? My thoughts became cludly as the grip on the railing seemed to have grown slippery and loosened slightly. I couldn't hold long.

I couldn't hear anything, anymore. My life was fading as I knew it.

_And Johanna Grace is gonna fall back onto earth, as a human traitor, squashed into a puddle of hideous matter of flesh and blood,_ I thought. _Awesome! I won! Cemetery Wind ain't gonna do any harm to us, anymore!_

Was depression a side effect of death? Somehow, being depressed wasn't in my nature. All I knew was I slowly closed my eyes, as I was ready to embrace death, when my grip would not take orders from my brain anymore. I let go of the railing.

Instead of falling backwards, like how I expected a terrific fall, suddenly I was actually, like – _rebounded upwards_, like what happens when you fall onto a springbed. And I felt weightless.

I opened my eyes, even though my thoughts were still vivid. Thousands of stars like blinking tiny lightbulbs glowed around in total ink-black darkness. To my right a gigantic black figure was our ship. Further away was the sun, appearing in a radient giant sphere. And behind me was _Earth, glowing in a faint ray of blue shade around the shere planet._

I entered space. On my record, Johanna Grace, survivor of Cannon Air Force Base Decepticon attack, wanted fugitive of Cemetery Wind, traitor of human kind survived her escape journey to space.


End file.
